09-05-2011

Mi familia!
Como estan?! Last Monday was transfers and so now I have a new companion as of a week ago. Her name is Hermana Skroski, but we call her Hermana Ski for short (much easier). We get along really, really good. She's from North Carolina and has been out on her mission for 10 months now. She has taught me a lot already about a lot of different things and so I feel really lucky.
I'm the one that knows this area though because she was in Napa before now and so it's been quite the experience trying to find our way around. One day we were pulled over on the side of the road (two blondes) hovering over the map. One guy walking past was like "do you need help?" haha, and we're like "How can you tell?!" It was just funny and the street we were looking for was literally like right in front of us. We were laughing so hard.
When we teach, I feel like we're unified and so that has been good. I admire a lot of things about her and so I'm excited to learn, learn, learn from her. That is one thing about the mission, it is a continuing learning experience and I love it.
The past few days, we have had the opportunity to visit a few of our less active members that I love so much. One of them is Andres, he's a convert and from Mexico. He works at a hotel here in Novato where he also lives. He's a single man and he's such a hardworker. Andres has so much faith and knows so much about the gospel. His work schedule is crazy, though. He works everyday from morning until 5 or something and then he's on call the rest of the night, so he can't ever leave the hotel. He told us it's like a prison and he feels like a slave. He does have one day off, Thursdays, but other than that he pretty much has to be there the rest of the time in case something goes wrong, so he can fix it. He does maintenance. Because I can't understand everything with spanish yet, I hadn't realized that this was his schedule and that it has been like that for 10 years now! I was so sad for him and so was Hermana Skroski. We told him that we were going to pray for him, of course, but also fast for him on Sunday. We told him to continue to pray and that we would talk about the solutions to what we can do about this when we see him this week. We want him to find a new job, we want him to be able to come to church and actually have a life outside of that hotel! I could tell that he was appreciative that we cared and that we're taking it upon ourselves to actually do something about his situation.
I just feel so blessed that I am here to serve Heavenly Father's children. I really do have a strong, strong love for these people. Even when I just meet them, I can't help but love them so much.
Last night after we got home and were done planning, Hermana Ski and I had a great conversation. We both made it a goal that we need to enjoy the moment more. "Seizing the moment" has been something I have been working on for a really long time and I think a lot of people have a hard time with it as well. We told ourselves that we don't ever want to be thinking about the next hour or even the next ten minutes, we want to embrace EVERY moment. I can think of a lot of times that I wasn't enjoying the moment and that is sad because you are wasting your life away if you are constantly thinking about the future or what's going to come next. Anyway, that is one of my major goals right now-to enjoy the present. I love my mission and I love everyday, but I can't tell you how many times I think about "When I know spanish better..." or "When I can teach better..." It's frustrating. We are working on it though. I hope that you are all enjoying the moment!! :]
I have a funny moment to share with you about spanish, these are always the best! So yesterday in ward council before church started, I was having an extra hard time understanding everyone because one of my ears was plugged with water from the shower. I couldn't understand what someone was telling me and so I said "Yo tengo agua in mi ovejas entonces no puedo oir muy bien." Haha, what I said was I have water in my sheep, so I can't hear very good. I meant orejas instead of ovejas (orejas are ears). Haha, everyone was just like "oh boy" and laughing. I'm glad they are patient with me and that we all just laugh about it.
I love you all so much. And I hope you are all having a WONDERFUL labor day. Go out and do something fun, enjoy yourself! Life is to be happy. :]
Heavenly Father loves all of us, His children, so much. He sent His only begotten son to atone for the sins of the world, so that all of His children would have a way back to live with Him. We all lived with our Heavenly Father and brother, Jesus Christ, before we came to this world. We knew the trials and difficulties we would face, but we wanted to do it. We knew that we could do it, we knew that we could overcome the trials and difficulties because that is the only way we could become more like our Heavenly Father. And everything that we fall short of, the atonement makes up for. I made up this motto in the MTC:
"If you try your best, the Lord will do the rest!"
It's true! The Gospel is true!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Robinson